already racked up through the laws that they passed. >>> the budget deal boosts asian stocks in hong kong and australia hitting 19-month highs in the first trading session of the year. >>> european equities also share a deal out of washington despite more gloom from the eurozone. manufacturing has continued to contract according to the latest pmi. >>> okay. 2013, a warm welcome to viewers of "worldwide exchange." my special families to a family called the wards. thank you for hosting my family over the new year. personalities out of the way, eurozone, still looking glum despite the market reaction to the fiscal cliff deal this morning. to recap, the eurozone december following manufacturer pmi, 46.1, the flash was 46.3. the final output index, 46, weaker than the 46.1 flash, 46.1 in december. and the november number for orders 44.2. the eurozone in sort of the slowdown in the eurozone factory activity deepening in december. new orders falling. in spain it was worse, as well. let's get reaction to that despite the risk on sentiment. we have global head of foreign exchange with us

half of those cuts in defense law? >> well, congress agreed they would cut an additional $1.2 trillion in spending. they put a committee together to try to come up with those numbers. they didn't figure out how to do it. so what we now have is a situation where these automatic spending cuts go into place. now, if we have raised some revenue by the wealthy paying a little bit more, that would be sufficient to turn off what is so-called the sequester, these automatic spending cuts, and that also would have a better outcome for our economy long-term. but, you know, so far, at least, congress has not been able to get this stuff done, not because democrats in congress don't want to go ahead and cooperate, but because i think it's been very hard for speaker boehner and republican leader mcconnell to accept the fact that taxes on the wealthiest americans should go up a little bit as part of an overall deficit reduction package. >> you talk about a dysfunction in washington. you sign this legislation setting up a fiscal cliff 17 months ago. how accountable are you for the fact that wa

guidance to employers on what will be the tax withholding rates for 2013. under the laws, those withholding rates are supposed to go up because, as you know, all thoughts tax cuts that were passed over a decade ago were supposed to expire. and the irs is basically on the sideline waiting to see what happens on the hill between them and the president to see if, in fact, there's a reason to tell the current employers, hold on, there will be a freeze on those rates. if, in fact, they have to go to the new guidance, consumers will start to feel very early the hit to their paychecks of having gone over the fiscal cliff, even if there's auto deal that retroactively drags us back over the top of the cliff. >> it's an interesting point. greg, thank you so much. such a mess. >>> it was better news at the box office lately. hollywood is on track to post an all-time box office record this year. film lovers have flocked the theaters to see christmas day performances of les miserables and "unchanged." >>> stick around. still to come on the show, the summer olympics and u.s. election made to

taxes go up. there is an endless list of expiring provisions of law that will, in fact, expire if nothing is done. and i think even if something is done at this point, what you're looking at is something very scaled back, something very small and congress will have to come back next year and take a look at trying to get to some of those other issues. >> alistair here. that sounds about right to me, assuming that that scenario is how things play out. what sort of impact medium term do you think this is going to have on consumer and corporate confidence in america, given that the fiscal cliff is clearly weighed heavily on both of those in recent months? >> the sad thing, you know, from an observer's standpoint here is that there isn't much corporate or consumer confidence in the american government. and it's proved itself dysfunctional time and again over the last couple of years. what you hear now is not how people believe that there's going to be some last-minute deal, but how they remember the times that the t.a.r.p. bill, the fiscal bailout a few years ago failed on the house fl